LONDON (Reuters) - The British government tried
to cover up one of the country's most famous sightings of an unidentified flying object, a parliamentary watchdog ruled Tuesday.

The "Rendlesham Files," which were finally
released last Thursday, contain eye witness accounts by U.S. Air Force officers at a military base close to RendleshamForest, eastern England,
who saw a brilliantly lit object land in the forest in December 1980.

Several people had complained to the parliamentary
ombudsman, Ann Abraham, that the Ministry of Defense had refused to divulge full details of the witness accounts. Abraham
ruled the ministry had "withheld three documents relating to reported sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena in 1980 --
the RendleshamForest
UFO incident."

A ministry spokeswoman said the files had not been deliberately withheld and had always
been available to anyone who asked.

In late in December 1980, officers investigating what they thought must be a crashed
plane saw a triangular "strange glowing object" that sent nearby farm animals into a frenzy.

"The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately
two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high," reads the file.

"It illuminated the entire forest with a white light," it added. "The object itself had
a pulsing red light on top and a bank of blue lights underneath. the object was hovering, or on legs."

Skeptics say the witnesses were merely seeing the beam from a lighthouse on the nearby
coast.

But the report adds that the next day three depressions seven feet in diameter were found
in the forest and readings of beta and gamma radiation were recorded.

Until last week, only around 20 members of the public had seen the file. The government
said it would also be publishing other files on reported UFO sightings on www.mod.uk.

The government says it intends to repeal or amend up to 100 pieces of legislation which
currently prohibit disclosure of information. It aims to replace them with provisions of a new Freedom of Information Act,
passed in 2000.

12/03/02
07:16 ET

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